When metal thieves stole a bronze plaque from a war memorial in a Cheshire village, schoolchildren wrote the names of the fallen on paper to serve as a replacement on Remembrance Sunday.

This year however the servicemen from Willaston will have a fitting tribute after £16,000 was raised to replace the plaque.

The money was donated after the monument’s plight was featured in The Sunday Telegraph as part of our Lest We Forget campaign, launched to ensure war memorials are in a fitting state for the centenary of the start of the First World War, in 2014.

The memorial, in Christ Church, will be unveiled by the pupils from the Willaston CE Primary School and re-dedicated by the Reverend Raymond Dent.

He said: “Once again we will have a memorial as we should have - a memorial to the men of this village who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars.

“The fact that the children had to make temporary plaques for last Remembrance Sunday really hit the headlines and we had cheques from all over the British Isles and even from Perth and Portugal - it seemed to really touch people. In their letters many people recalled their own bereavements from war.”

The memorial was built in the churchyard in 1921, the cost being met from public subscription. It was engraved with the names of 34 men, including many who, at the outbreak of the war, had joined the locally-raised Cheshire Regiment and the King’s Regiment (Liverpool) - whose volunteers were known as the “Liverpool Pals”.

Most of the men fell on the battlefields of the Western Front. Others were killed while fighting in more distant campaigns, such Mesopotamia and Palestine – now Iraq and the Gaza Strip – or died in captivity, in Germany.

After the Second World War, the names of another nine locals killed during that conflict were added.

The memorial remained a focal point in the churchyard for years afterwards until July 29 last year when overnight, thieves prised the plaque from the monument devastating villagers and veterans.

One man was later jailed for trying to sell the plaque for scrap but the thief was never caught and the plaque was not recovered. The church was told it would cost thousands to replace and Rev Dent feared that, in the current climate, it would be impossible to replace.

But scores came forward with donations for the Willaston War Memorial Fund, including an anonymous donor from the south of England who gave £5,000. The bronze plaque was cast and engraved in Australia, because the committee could not find a local company to do the work, before being brought to England. It is currently being stored in a council yard in Chester, ready for the re-dedication ceremony.

Retired squadron leader Fred Champman, who served in the RAF between 1942 and 1961 and is now president of the Willaston in the Wirral branch of the British Legion, said: “We were absolutely devastated so we are very pleased now.

“There are not many of us left so you can imagine that we are so pleased that some of these young people are taking an interest, they seem to be more receptive of these bygone times than they were years ago.”

Nigel Pratten, treasurer of the fund, said: “Of the money raised, our heartfelt thanks are due to the local community, the country-wide response to newspaper reports and one particularly generous donation from the South of England, each of which raised roughly one third of the total.”

Second Lieutenant John Percival Hermon-Hodge was one of those named on the monument. He was one of three brothers killed in the First World War. His father was Sir Robert Trotter Hermon-Hodge, a Conservative MP - later elevated to the peerage as Baron Wyfold of Accrington. Second Lt Hermon-Hodge died on May 28, 1915, at the age of 24, in the Ypres salient, an exposed part of the British front lines which projected deep into enemy territory.

Flying Officer Albert Rupert John Medcalf was also named. He was a Spitfire pilot who was shot down while providing fighter cover for the evacuation of Dunkirk, on 27 May 1940. With 19 other Spitfires and Hurricanes, he engaged a lone Heinkel 111 bomber which was trying to disrupt the British retreat. However, they were then attacked by up to 40 Messerschmitt Bf 110. The bomber and three German fighters were shot down, for the loss of two Spitfires, including F/O Medcalf’s. His body was never found. He was 26.

The Telegraph’swar memorials campaign was launched amid growing concern at the condition of the country’s estimated 100,000 monuments, many of which are in a poor state after falling victim to thieves, vandals or neglect.

It has been backed by David Cameron, the Prime Minister, and senior military figures, and secured progress on calls for the prosecution of anyone caught damaging a war memorial, stiffer sentences for those convicted and tighter laws on scrap metal-dealing to deter theft.

Heritage groups, including the War Memorials Trust, the Heritage Lottery Fund – which distributes National Lottery money – and the Imperial War Museum, have also formed a war memorials action group and have agreed to work together to save monuments.

Dozens of groups, individuals and parish councils have also contacted The Sunday Telegraph expressing concern.

*If you know of a war memorial which is in need of repair, please let us know by emailing warmemorial@telegraph.co.uk or writing to Lest We Forget Campaign, The Sunday Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT